Death of a Salesman : Authur Miller

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Death of a Salesman is an attack on the American Dream cliché. The novel focuses on the Loman family, namely Willy Loman – the father. Willy, above everything else, holds appearances, popularity and his salesman title as priorities even though he has not completely acquired these characteristics. He has created this false image that he and his family are successful but in reality they are on the edge of poverty. He faithfully believes that they will soon get their “big break” that they so greatly “deserve”. But as his mirage slowly begins to crumble and he begins to see he is really a failure, he slowly goes insane – has flashbacks and talks to his self-created apparitions. In the end he dies as a failure in the eyes of society (shown by the lack of guests at his funeral).

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of this novel is that of the American Dream. Willy believes that the key to success is through attractiveness and likeability however these ideals are very superficial and contrast with the real path to the American Dream – through hard work. When the American Dream doesn’t present itself to Willy he goes through a state of psychological degradation.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
The author’s tone mocks Willy and his unrealistic and materialistic view of the American Dream.
“He [Willy] never knew who he was.”
“I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been!”
“And what goes through a man's mind, driving seven hundred miles home without having earned a cent”

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers.
-Diction: uses powerful words to intensify the story and make it more dramatic
-Syntax: uses periodic sentences to hold on to the readers’ attention “but now his old friends...they're all dead, retired”
-Rhetorical question: questions the character’s situation they’re in and also helps to portray the author’s tone
-Flashback: Willy often flashes back to better times in his life when he can’t accept his current unsuccessful situation.
-Anaphora: Willy often repeats “He is not just liked, but well-liked” which shows his materialistic views
-Antithesis: Charley is Willy’s neighbor and unlike Willy is successful, humble, and generous.
-Apostrophe: Willy often creates these illusions in his mind and attempts to talk to them.
-Cliché: the infamous American Dream that Willy tries to obtain.
-Dialect: the author makes the language used seem like it is from a big city like New York through use of slang.
-Symbols: diamonds as wealth and Willy’s failure as a salesman.
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. 
Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

•  Happy and Biff described as strong, well-built men for labor and this contradicts with their office setting. Miller uses direct characterization to set the mood and the setting of the characters.
• Biff is extremely sarcastic. He feels bitter about his past and his relationship with Willy. Everything that comes out of Happy’s mouth is positive, and he’s always trying to smooth situations over and keep everyone at peace. 
• The author uses indirect and direct characterization to both set the setting and to establish the network of characters in the story.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

•  Everything that Happy says is positive so the author needs to change his diction and syntax to match the characters personality. If the author used sarcastic words for Happy, the audience wouldn't be able to tell exactly the personality of a character.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

• For the most part, Willy doesn't change during the play; therefore, Willy is a static character. Willy's inability to grasp reality, his poor parenting, and his constant lying to his wife all show that he doesn't really change during the play.
  

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

• I felt like I read a character because Willy's failure is so unrealistically rigged in my opinion. If a man has as much potential as Willy, there should be no reason for him to fail, rather, it should lead him to success easily. Most of the people with potential that I know, make it to the top someday. And Willy's insecurity just doesn't add up either.

Thinking Outside the Box

Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment? Enter Sartre's space more fully and imagine how it would feel to live there endlessly, night and day

• I imagine my hell as a dark forest, but ordinary and boring like Sartre's drawing room. There wouldn't be any torture tools, just trees and night all the time. Hell could be a beautiful place, but I feel like if Hell was beautiful then there would torture tools. Finding peace in Hell is like a needle in a haystack. Someone would go crazy if he/she had to stay in one place all the time.

Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex? 

•  The whole viewpoint of Hell is a place that people will dislike, so it will never be too much of anything without a break. Passing time with cheesecake or ravenous sex doesn't change the fact that Hell is hell and it is going to stay like that.

How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?

• Sartre showed a lot of anger and arguing in his dialogue which could suggest that the effects of hell are all negative. If they weren't in hell then there is a chance that the arguments wouldn't have happened. Obviously staying awake all the time with the lights on and no hope of leaving would be ridiculously boring. If I wasn't already dead, I would kill myself. Garcin argues, and in a sense, he is embracing hell because of all the negative energy he and his hellmates are putting off. Garcin is confused at first but once he accepts that that is hell then he goes ahead and embraces it. Some of my daily activities are already hell like school. School is really repetitive and boring; therefore, I associate it with hell.

 In Plato's allegory, hell was something you could escape by being introduced to reality, but in Sartre's play, hell is inescapable and it is personified as a character that does nothing but bad to Garcin, Inez, and Estelle. The only solution I can think of towards Sartre's hell is to sit and do nothing, but that in itself is hell because, personally, I would go crazy.

 

Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

From the fire and the flames
to the shackles and the chains,
the prisoners were forced to see
the shadows they thought were reality.

One freed man's freedom
to see the sunlit kingdom
showed him the reality
he could not see 

When the man went back
to tell the men in the black,
the cave shunned and disapproved him
With ignorant hearts, the prisoners stayed shackled by the limb.

The triumphant freed man in his victory
looks at the ignorant prisoners suffering in misery.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

•  The allegory represents how we refuse to see what is real, and how we reject reality. Until we are shown by someone else, we generally don't want to see the "sun". By doing that, we close ourselves into a cave where we believe what we see and we don't really think at all.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?

• Prisoner- ignorance
• The freed prisoner- philosophers
• Sun- reality
• Cave- imagination

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

•  Enlightenment and education really isn't something you can find for yourself. Someone has to give you the opportunity and you have to be willing to take it. Also, enlightenment and education are metaphors for the sun.  

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

• The shackles suggest that the prisoners are essentially slaves to the "puppeteers". The prisoners are forced to only see shadows, so their mind is in a prison they can't escape without freedom into reality. The cave is the prison, but in this case, it is more of a slave prison than a prisoner prison.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

• The government shackles the American mind. They all say that the power is in the people, but realistically there are many "under-the-table" deals that happen in the government. 

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

•  The cave prisoners are restricted to only what they can see, in this case the shadows on the wall, but the freed prisoner can see reality. By seeing what is real, the freed prisoner can think for himself and believe what he wants to believe.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

•  One of the prisoners were freed from the shackles. He was confused and didn't know what to think about reality and the shadow.
• Inside the cave, the prisoners were only seeing shadows on the walls.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

• The cave prisoners get released by outside influences in order to get free. Intellectual freedom comes through experience. One cannot call "free thought" intellectual freedom because intellectual freedom has to be valid.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

• For the most part, what you can see is pretty real. In a certain point of view, the shadows that the prisoners were seeing was reality. It was reality in that the shadows were real things, but the prisoners just didn't know what or where the shadows came from. From another point of view, appearances and reality are different. Just like the freed prisoner, the moment he turned around he saw what was really going on.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?

• 1: Reality does not really exist. What we see is completely different than what other people are seeing. We see an apple because we want to while others could be see an orange. In the same effect we hear only what we want to hear.
• 2:  The life we live is all a dream, and our death in the dream is the awakening of another dream as another person. Except we don't have any recollections of the past.

Sonnet Analysis Part 1

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

• This part of the sonnet describes how Poe was very lonely and different as a child. He didn't blend in with everyone, and because of that, he was sad and alone.

Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:

• The sonnet is saying how Poe's childhood was only the beginning to all the sorrow that followed. The "mystery" Poe talks about is the question he has to life about why his life is so terrible.

From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view. 

• All the lines before the last show that everywhere else is perfect, and things are going through its natural course of life. 
• The last line tells about how Poe's life is so bad even though everywhere else seems to be fine. 

Big Question

Why does everyone tell me to do what I want in my life, both career and hobby wise, but at the same time pressure me to get into a fantastic college with excellent school marks and grow up to have a well paying job that requires a lot of schooling and intelligence?

Musical Blog

Due to popular request, I finally decided to do a sort of tutorial on my blog on how to get a music player on here.

My method is a bit more techy but it works just fine.

First you are gonna want to go onto your blog's "layout" settings

• basically the layout setting will give you how your blog looks without anything on it except boxes for where everything goes. 

Based on where you want your music player on your blog, you are gonna click "add a gadget"

• for example, a typical place to put your music player is at the bottom so that is where I placed mine like so
 
•  Notice how I have an HTML/Javascript gadget already on mine? well you are going to want that on yours. 
• Just click on "add gadget" then scroll down until you find the HTML/Javascript gadget and press the "+" button to add it.
• Once you click the +, it will come up as a configuration menu. you are going to want this code ---> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://o.aolcdn.com/art/merge?f=/_media/sp/sp-player.js&f=/_media/sp/sp-player-blogger.js&expsec=86400&ver=11&clicktext=Click%20to%20Play%20the%20DEMO%20Song&showplaylist=false&showplaylistbutton=false&autoplay=true&showpop=false&popup=false"></script>
• Copy the code and paste into the body part of it.  like so 

 

•  Click save and never touch it again. That code is solely for the music player itself. 

Now for the actual mp3 files that go along with the player.

Go to Open Drive and create an account there. For now go with the free version of the sign up.

• Opendrive is basically an online storage device where you are going to store the music that you will need for the blog. 

Once you made your account, upload your music files from the computer onto your opendrive. Should be fairly easy if you can find the mp3 files on your computer. Like if you buy music on iTunes then your music will be in your music ---> itunes folder

• you can upload as many songs as you want on your blog. As you can see I have many to choose from. 

 Okay now we are going to jump back to blogger for a moment. 

Add another gadget of the same "HTML/JavaScript" and copy/paste this code. 

<a href="Direct link" style="display:none;">Title</a> 

DON'T SAVE THE CONFIGUATION JUST YET! LEAVE IT OPEN FOR THE TIME BEING!

Now back to Opendrive. You are going to want to go into the options of your song and go to links. 

copy and paste the "direct link (streaming)" into the part of this code <a href="Direct link" style="display:none;">Title</a>  where it says direct link.  

  Copy that

 Paste there

 While you are doing the coding for that, you can also change the title like I did. All you have to do is delete the word "title" with what you want like penguins or something. The title is what it will show up as in the music player when people view your blog.

So there, Congratulations! You completed your music player. If you would like more songs then you can keep using the same code in the same HTML/Javascript for all the other songs. The order that you place them in in the configuration will be the order that they play in on the music player. 

So mine looks like this because I have a total of 5 songs on my music player.

Just make sure to click save when you are finished. Save the gadgets, then press "save arrangement" on the layout menu.

 There is the tumblr method which is a lot simpler than this, but I chose to go with a multiple song option which you can't achieve through the tumblr option (i think). 

Once you check your blog again, the music player should be there fully functioning if you didn't do anything wrong. 

If you guys have any questions regarding this, you can ask me via comment or email and I'll see what I can do. 

Thanks! :)

Sonnet

 Alone : Edger Alan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then—in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

AP Hamlet PLN

Mrs. Mills AP Lit blog doesn't really cover a lot of material on it, but there are some videos that I found helpful. There is also an essay topic that I could potentially think about for Hamlet.

Open Source Shakespeare
I thought this might be useful to me especially because a lot of the time I get lost in all the characters that are in a book, or I never get a complete grasp of all the characters that exist in the plot.

Shakespeare Index
This can definitely be a useful tool for Hamlet as well as the other Shakespeare plays that we read later in the year. It has a whole list of Shakespearean works with summaries and analysis with them.

Hamlet Blog
This is from a different student that is also using Hamlet as a tool to open source his/her work. It is nice to see the novel interpreted from a different perspective other than your own.

High School AP Lit course
I found this high school and the link goes directly to the Hamlet post by the teacher with a list of the students in the side bar. Since this is a whole new set of brains, I feel like this is very valid in its strength to aid me.

To sleep. Perchance to weigh less

This could be a cause of many obese people in the US. Its commonly known that people perform at a completely different level with a good nights sleep rather than the very common 6 hours or less. College is known to have a "Freshman 15" curse where you gain 15 pounds in your first year of college. Is it really the good cafeteria food? Or could it be that all these students are so deprived of their sleep that they put on a few more pounds. I figured this was another reason for people to be motivated to sleep more, especially me.

Never Let Me Go : Kazuo Ishiguro

GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

•  Never Let Me Go is set in a dystopian society where children are bred as clones in order to donate all possible organs to other human beings once they get old enough. The novel starts off as a flash back that the main protagonist, Kathy, has while she is at Hailsham, the primary academy where children are grown. At Hailsham, Kathy grows up with two other students that become her best friends once they come out of Hailsham. Along with Ruth and Tommy, Kathy grows up until they are old enough (16) to be released into the outside world. In Hailsham, they discover secrets that are not supposed to be told to the clone. Things like the purpose of their life or that they cannot bare children because they are clones. Once outside, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy live at the cottages where the clones are free to live as they wish until they are due for their donations. At the cottages, the children are able to choose between being a carer and a donor. The donors go straight into giving donations to clients, but the carers get to care for the donors during a certain period of time before they themselves have to donate. Once the donations start, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are separated from each other. Kathy gets word from a source that tells her Ruth gave her donations and she is doing poorly so Kathy goes and visits Ruth. While Kathy is there, Tommy is not to far from the center so they are all reunited once again. After this encounter, Ruth dies, and Kathy takes it upon herself to become Tommy's carer. At this point Tommy has given three donations and in order to prolong his life, they try to get a extension (rumors). The extensions turn out not to be true and Tommy dies after his fourth donation. Now the novel returns to the beginning of the book before Kathy's flashback and ends with Kathy awaiting her due dates for donations.
• The book is narrated from Kathy's point of view, and the reason for that, I believe, is because out of all the three main character (Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth), Kathy holds the strongest personality. She strengthens the theme with her attitude towards life. When Kathy decides to become a carer, she makes it apparent that she doesn't wish to believe in the purpose of her life.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

•  Individualism is a huge component in the novel because the children that are raised as clones are not their own unique selves. All of the children are curious either in a hateful or emotional manner with their "originals" (what they call the person they were cloned from). Nonetheless, there is a huge feeling of individualism that mostly Kathy seeks because she despises the thought of her being someone else and not herself.

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

•  The author's tone is sad, almost depressing. When I read this book, one thing that really popped out at me was the way the author would show a variety of emotions in the novel yet keep that sense of sadness and longing for real life. Along with that sadness comes rage.
• “Why did we do all of that work in the first place? Why train us, encourage us, make us produce all of that? If we’re just going to give donations anyway, then die, why all those lessons? Why all those books and discussions?” -Kathy p.259
•  “If you’re to live decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.” -Miss Lucy p.81
• “Didn’t we all dream from time to time about one guardian or other bending the rules and doing something special for us? A spontaneous hug, a secret letter, a gift?” -Kathy p.60

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

•  Symbolism- Kathy's music tape that she loves so dearly gives a connection the to outside world, maybe the only connection.
• Flashback- Kathy's narration starts at Tommy's fourth donation, and then she flashbacks all the way back to when she was a child in Hailsham.
• Direct Characterization- In the beginning, Kathy starts off her narration with "My name is Kathy H. I am thirty-one years old, and I've been a carer now for over eleven years."
• Indirect Characterization- Kathy shows a really motherly/caring side to her when she tell Tommy that his favorite polo shirt is all muddy and that he should take care of it.
• Bildungsroman- Throughout the whole book, Ruth, Tommy, and Kathy all discover new things about their like (that they are clones), and that changes all their personalities. They all developed a sort of careless, angry attitude of life.
• Conflict- Kathy and Tommy try to fight having to give donations, but its an inevitable purpose for the clone children. 
• Foil- Kathy and Ruth can be determines as opposites because Kathy is really nice and caring, but Ruth is shown as carefree and she doesn't care as much.
• Point of view- Ishiguro uses first person point of view in order to tell the story through Kathy's eyes.
• Setting- The setting is interesting because it isn't the norm of dystopian societies that we generally think of. Instead, the novel is set in older more recent and modern times with that dystopian feel.
• Stream of consciousness- Kathy's thoughts are constantly shown throughout the book. She constantly points out personal thoughts of matters at hand.

CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.
Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

•  Direct Characterization
• In the beginning Kathy starts off her narration by stating her name, age, and current position. 
•  Kathy describes Ruth as charismatic, but manipulative and dishonest.
• Indirect Charcterization
• Kathy shows her caring personality by pointing about how Tommy dirtied his favorite polo shirt.
• Kathy is given a jealous personality at the cottages when Tommy and Ruth start dating. Kathy started out with a unselfish attitude, but as Tommy and Ruth begin to love each other, that changes.  
• Using both direct and indirect characterization strengthens the each character as the plot pursues. Direct characterization established an initial character and indirect establishes the long term evolution of each character. 

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

•  When the author is in Kathy's focus, his diction changes into softer and sadder words or more caring words; however, when the focus changes to someone like Ruth, there is always room for anger or arguments between Kathy and Ruth.
• “We all know it. We’re modeled from trash. Junkies, prostitutes, winos, tramps. Convicts, maybe, just so long as they aren’t psychos. That’s what we come from. We all know it, so why don’t we say it?” -Ruth p. 166
• “Something in me just gave up. A voice went: ‘All right, let him think the absolute worst. Let him think it, let him think it.’ And I suppose I looked at him with resignation, with a face that said, ‘Yes, it’s true, what else did you expect?’” -Kathy p. 195

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

•  The protagonist is dynamic and round. Kathy definitely changes throughout the book because in the beginning she is very nice and caring, but towards everyone's death, she becomes emo. She gets really sad and welcoming of death. She also shows a lot of selfishness, rage, and jealousy as the plot ensues. 

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

•  I wouldn't say that I have met a real character because they don't reach my standard of what a real person is, but the protagonists have a lot of real qualities. When Kathy is jealous of what Ruth and Tommy have going for each other, I, as well as many others, could related to Kathy's situation. It is really easy to find yourself sitting on the sidelines while you see the person you like with another person, and sometimes you just have to respect what they have. In a way I think Kathy did respect Tommy and Ruth's relationship.

*

"Skinnier on Campus"

This really caught my eye. I don't know if it was the fact that I'm a huge mind geek or that I found it to be so related to what we have going now. If all guys said they liked girls in sundresses then I can bet more girls would wear sundresses.

Tools That Change the Way We Think

I can hardly say that this generation thinks for itself anymore. We base our thoughts on others and others base their thoughts on other and so on. It's a never ending chain of information taken from one another through the internet. I'm not talking about going through an informative book to get the information. People see what people think and think it as well. It might be just me but when I see how fast "swag" or "yolo" travels from one another, its incredible. We no longer control what we want to think because all the thinking that we need is already done for us regardless of whether or not we want it or not.

Notes on Hamlet

At the beginning of reading Hamlet, I was uninterested in reading another piece of Shakespeare because, frankly, it is hard to understand most of the time. As I got further and further into the book, I noticed that I had a stronger connection to the book than before. Now after reading Act III, I'm genuinely enjoying the plot of the play.

Hamlet is finally starting to get piece of his revenge together, first, with the kill of Polonius. By saying that, I mean that there are more pieces to be found and put together; therefore, there will be more bloodshed and craziness about the play.

Who Was Shakespeare?

Firefox.
Searched "Who was Shakespeare?".
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/shakespeare.html

A lot of information about Shakespeare is a giant mystery to people. His name is extremely popular and well-known for the great playwright that he was, but this like his birthday or even a real image of what he looked like is guessed.

Most students, like I, know Shakespeare as a legendary writer of plays in the 16th century. His work is a big controversy between many scholars that either hate him or love him. My perception of Shakespeare has not changed since I first read some of his works because at the age that I was, I could understand him a lot better than a child still in their primary schooling years. As I read Hamlet, I noticed that Shakespeare makes a lot of references to things and uses a lot of crude and hidden humor that only people that understand the words would comprehend.

To Facebook or Not To Facebook?

The fact that I HATE Facebook, but yet I'm so addicted to it doesn't make any sense to me. It's just a way to pass time for me, but in doing so I have gotten into the habit where I am constantly on Facebook whenever my computer is turned on. It's very good for talking to friends, collaborating on school work, passing time, an staying connected with other people through the internet. But like I have learn through my experience on this hellhole of a social networking site, It provides instant addiction and Facebook eventually controls your life on the internet by letting you see what you want to see. I really knew about all this web filtering business before I watched the TED Talk on Facebook mainly because I spend most of my hours on the internet and somehow I came across an article explaining the concept. The article just proved how I felt about Facebook.

Vocabulary #9

Abortive: failing to produce the intended result

• An astronaut was abortive in his attempts to step foot on a different galaxy.

Bruit: spread a report or rumor widely

•  Brutal Bruce bruits everything he experiences in his life.

Contumelious: scornful and insulting behavior

•  Conner's contumelious comments generates a lot of hate towards his reputation.

Dictum: a formal pronouncement from an authoritative source; a short statement that expresses a general truth or principle

•  The dictator's dictum dictated that he would not step down from his leadership.

Ensconce: establish or settle

• He ensconced his role in the movie by staying in character throughout the time they filmed.

Iconoclastic: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions

• Many atheists demonstrate iconoclastic behavior by trashing Christians.

In medias res: a narrative that begins somewhere in the middle of a story rather than the beginning

• Julian Smith uses in media res in his films to explain events.

Internecine: destructive to both sides in a conflict

•  The trick question asked by the audience was internecine to both candidates.

Maladroit: ineffective or bungling; clumsy

•  Extremely erudite people sometimes come off as socially maladroit.

Maudlin: self-pitying or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness

•  The maudlin old man emotionally cried in the bar because his failure in life.

Modulate: exert a modifying or controlling influence on

•  Many older peers modulate teenagers into negative habits.

Portentous: of or like a portent; done in a pompously or overly solemn manner

•  The interview for the bodyguard job was portentous.

Prescience: the power to foresee the future

•  I honestly believe I have prescience because of all the dreams I have been having.

Quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something

•  A man from my past offered me a quid pro quo which ended up benefiting my life greatly.

Salubrious: health-giving, healthy; pleasant, not run-down

•  The new iPhone 5 is a salubrious piece of technology.

Saturnalia: the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December; an occasion of wild revelry

•  The ancient Roman village celebrated all night on their Saturnalia.

Touchstone: a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized

•  The touchstone for all basketball players is generally their skill and height.

Traumatic: emotionally disturbing or distressing; relating to or causing psychological trauma

•  The happy girl turned into a dark, lonely girl after the traumatic event.

Vitiate: spoil or impair the quality or efficiency of; destroy or impair the legal validity of

•  I hate when people watch a movie and vitiate the movie by talking about it.

Waggish: humorous in a playful, mischievous, or facetious manner

•  Jesse and I have very waggish personalities because he find humor in pranks and jokes.

Hamlet. r-r-r-remix

When I think of Hamlet acting crazy in front of people and more importantly deceiving the people around him, it brings to mind a particular topic that is popular in our society. Trolling. Trolls, for people who don't already know, are people that commit certain acts to invoke certain responses from other people. Generally, the responses that trolls desire are ones of anger or frustration. This is closely related with the commonly known phrase "u mad bro." (sic).

So I took both photos (Hamlet and Trollface) off of Google and merged them together.

Hamlet's behavior gives him the title of troll.

Midterm Autopsy

I did a lot better than I expected on the midterm. A 77 isn't far away from a perfect score, so I would attribute my success to just studying the words like I do before every vocab test we have. I also received a lot of help from Kathryn. Sooner or later the final is going to hit us so I need to continue reviewing the words of past weeks and learning/reviewing the words to upcoming weeks. When that final day comes, I'll be ready.

Vocabulary #8

Abeyance-(N.) A state of temporary disuse or suspension.

Ambivalent- (Adj.) Having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

Beleaguer- (V.) Beset with difficulties

Carte blanche- (N.) Complete freedom to act as one wishes or thinks best.

Cataclysm- (N.) A sudden violent upheaval, esp. in a political or social context

Debauch- (V.) Destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt.
(N.) A bout of excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, esp. eating and drinking

éclat- (N.) brilliant or conspicuous success

Fastidious- (Adj.) Very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail

Gambol- (V.) Run or jump about playfully

Imbue- (V.) Inspire or permeate with a feeling or quality: "imbued with deep piety".

Inchoate- (Adj.) Just begun and so not fully formed or developed

Lampoon- (V.) Publicly criticize (someone or something) by using ridicule or sarcasm.
(N.) A speech or text criticizing someone or something in this way

Malleable- (Adj.) Easily influenced; pliable

Nemesis- (N.) The inescapable or implacable agent of someone's or something's downfall

Opt- (V.) Make a choice from a range of
possibilities

Philistine- (N.) A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them

Picaresque- (Adj.) Of or relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero

Queasy- (Adj.) Nauseated; feeling sick

Refractory- (Adj.) Stubborn or unmanageable

Savoir-faire- (N.) The ability to act or speak appropriately in social situations.

Dear Ophelia

A part of me is saying to go with Hamlet because he is royal, and that is every little girls dream. But I say to trust your bother and father because they are your family and they would not encourage negative action in your life. They hold no empathy towards Hamlet, which is a great factor as well, and generally family is very malcontent with things that they do not agree with. IF you don't do as the family wants then that usually leads to a very unwanted split. Don't be obsequious and give into the dank submission from your mind. But it is hard to come to a consensus with a personal vendetta on the head of Hamlet by your brother and father. I know how much you might not want to give up on him, but I see a parlous harbinger as the outcome of this situation. To cull such an option would bring about bickering at apropos.

Sincerely,

Ubi Kim

Vocabulary Midterm Study Strategies.

My initial strategy is to just write out the list (learning from writing) then just look over them over and over until I get them. I might write out more sentences because reading teacher of mine told me the best way to study vocab for the SATs was to try and make sentences off the fly because that shows complete understanding of the words.

I might even study with some friends because that would be more fun than just self studies.

The Invisible Man

On the huge list of AP Readings, I found an interesting book.

(76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11) Those are the dates of it showing up on the exam.

From what I've read of the synopsis on the back cover, it sound very dark. Seeing that it has made the AP exam that many times, I figured it was a must read before May, and hey I would be killing two birds with one stone. Also from what I've read, it involves parallel universes and all that psychological confusion. My best friend and I sometimes just talk about parallel universes and instances in which we, as human beings, aren't able to comprehend yet. Things like if we were to move faster than time, or what if once we died, we lost all memories of a previous life until the last life of our chain where we experience a huge flash of all the memories from all of our life. The Invisible Man just seems like one of those books where the protagonist questions a lot of things about life.

Hamlet Learning Sources

http://shakespearean-headcanon.tumblr.com/

• I found this person on tumblr and he/she periodically posts about Shakepearean works. Sometime he/she talks about Hamlet which is good. They are largely opinionated posts like most others which I think is good because a different opinion than mine can lead to some thinking. 

http://shakespeare.nuvvo.com/discussions

• You have to make an account, but that's simple. They have some discussions going on about Hamlet, but not too many. If you ask about it, then they can probably answer you with valid questions. I've decided to start a thread on for personal learning use. Nuvvo seems to be a good learning community.

http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/discuss/students-studying-hamlet-55205

• They already have a discussion going because a student made the tread for the same cause, so this should be helpful

Pre-Will

1. I don't know anything besides the six words that are extremely famous. "To be or not to be". As for the "Melancholy Dane" I have no idea. Judging by the title, I can tell that it has something to do with sadness and citizens.

2. I do know about Shakespeare. He is considered a great playwright, and to me that reputation holds true. In the past, I have only read Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar but non of his others. From experience, Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter and he always has a tragedy in his poems.

3. I feel like students don't respect literature enough to like Shakespeare yet. In order to like Shakespeare, you have to like literature, so that seems like the main reason. Shakespeare is also pretty difficult to understand because of the style of writing, and if the audience can't understand the poem whats not to hate?

4.I could always write a song on Hamlet *hint* *hint*. I believe if the class really interacted with the poem and we did fun projects and group work, understanding Hamlet would come a lot easier, and we would not neglect it as much as we would.

Vocabulary #7

aberration - (noun) an optical phenomenon resulting from the failure of a lens or mirror to produce a good image; a disorder in one's mental state; a state or condition markedly different from the norm

• An aberration in his thought process restricts him from being normal.

Ad hoc- (adverb) for the special purpose or end presently under consideration

• After a tornado swept through the school, an ad hoc group of parents was formed to assist in the repairs.

bane - (noun) something causes misery or death

•  The death of his loved ones caused the city to experience the murderer's bane.

bathos - (noun) triteness or triviality of style; a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one; insincere pathos

•  The bathos in the novice story written by the college English major made me want to kill myself.

cantankerous - (adj.) having a difficult and contrary disposition; stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate

• His cantankerous attitude destroyed the hope of making a team.

casuistry - (noun) moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas; argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading

•  However, I'm not convinced of such casuistry because I'm not convinced that self-regard and egocentrism are exactly the same thing.

de facto - (noun) in fact; in reality

•  Whales are ocean mammals, de facto they are the largest mammals.

depredation - (noun) an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding; (usually plural) a destructive action

•  The depredation of dinosaurs was tragic.

empathy - (noun) understanding and entering into another's feelings

• I feel empathy for other Asians who want to get into UCs.

harbinger - (noun) an indication of the approach of something or someone; verb foreshadow or presage

•  The harbinger of my death was apparent through the mafia wielding guns.

hedonism - (noun) an ethical system that evaluates the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good; the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle

•  Hedonism is a central part of our Declaration of Independence.

lackluster - (adj.) lacking luster or shine; lacking brilliance or vitality

•  His lackluster attitude never achieved much in his lifetime.

malcontent - (adj.) discontented as toward authority; noun a person who is discontented or disgusted

•  A lot of young Americans are malcontent that marijuana is not legal.

mellifluous - (adj.) pleasing to the ear

• The ambiance of Shlohmo is mellifluous. 

nepotism - noun favoritism shown to relatives or close friends by those in power (as by giving them jobs)

•  Often times in corrupt government, mepotism is a large component.

pander - (noun) someone who procures customers for whores (in England they call a pimp a ponce); verb arrange for sexual partners for others; yield (to); give satisfaction to

• The pander was shunned upon in society.

peccadillo - (noun) a petty misdeed

• The peccadillo was not grave enough to put him behind bars.

piece de resistance - (noun) the most noteworthy or prized feature, aspect, event, article, etc., of a series or group; special item or attraction.

•  The piece de resistance that we received from the company showed our excellence.

remand - (noun) the act of sending an accused person back into custody to await trial (or the continuation of the trial); verb refer (a matter or legal case) to another committee or authority or court for decision; lock up or confine, in or as in a jail

• I was remanded for there was controversy over the crime I committed.

syndrome - (noun) a complex of concurrent things; a pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease

• Down syndrome is a terrible disease that has only the parent to blame.

Literature Analysis #1 As I Lay Dying

1. Basically the whole story is about a person, Addie. She falls really ill and eventually dies, but before she dies, she asks that she be buried in a town called Jefferson. In order to fulfill her death wish, her husband Anse and her children Jewel, Darl, Cash, Dewey, and Vardaman venture to bury her.

2. The theme of this novel is questionable existence and identity. For example, Darl, after his mother dies, questions whether she still exists since she is now a "was" not an "is".

3. The way Faulkner writes makes it so that there are multiple tones because of all the narrators. The most noticeable tones are tragic, comical, and detached.

•  "He kilt her. He kilt her." The life in him runs under the skin, under my hand, running through the splotches, smelling up into my nose where the sickness is beginning to cry, vomiting the crying, and then I can breathe, vomiting it."
•  "My mother is a fish"
•  "Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file. Although I am fifteen feet ahead of him, anyone watching us from the cottonhouse can see Jewel's frayed and broken straw hat a full head above my own."

 4. Literary Devices

•  Imagery
•  "It was Darl. He come to the door and stood there, looking at his dying mother. He just looked at her."
• "Vardaman comes around the house, blody as a hog to his knees, and that ere fish chopped up with the axe like as not,..."
• "The boards looked like strips of sulphur."
• I tried to find another one that I really had in mind, but I forgot where it was. It described how they drilled two holes in the coffin straight through the wood and the corpse inside.

• Symbolism
• Vardaman's fish relates to Christianity. He catches the fish and cleans it and he relates this to his mother. "My mother is a fish"
•  Eyes seem to be a prominent role in the novel because a lot of describing of characters are done through it. "Jewel's pale eyes"
• New Hope Church. This one is really literal because of the obvious Christian connection in the novel but when they see the sign that says "New Hope Church" it is around the same time when they gain hope.
• Allusions
• Reference to Christianity. "Nobody can't guard against the hand of God"
• The title As I Lay Dying is from on of Faulkner's favorite epics. The Odyssey. 
• Onomatopoeia
• "Cluck Cluck Cluck"
• "Hush"
• "Sho"

• Profane/Strong Language- adds to the tone of the novel, how tragic or angry a charcter is
• "God damn it"
• "Bitch"
• "Hell"

Vocabulary #6

beatitude- Supreme blessedness

• The beatitude of religion is so strong in society today.

bete noire- a detested person (disliked or avoided)

• The morbid man in the sketchy trench coat was bete noire.

bode- Be an omen of a particular outcome

•  The bode of having killed a man haunted him until suicide.

dank- Disagreeably damp, musty, and typically cold

• The subways of New York are dank places for homeless people to sleep.

ecumenical- Promoting or relating to unity among the world's Christian churches

• A lot of Christians are ecumenical of their religion and try to get everyone to convert.

fervid- Intensely enthusiastic or passionate

• Some of the most brilliant pianists in history were not so fervid of the art.

fetid- Smelling extremely unpleasant

• My friend bought a bottle of spray that was intentionally fetid just to joke around.

gargantuan- of great mass

• The gargantuan man was much larger than the anorexic man.

heyday- The period of a person's or thing's greatest success or popularity

• Just as Rockefeller started the Standard Oil business, he met his heyday.

incubus- A cause of distress or anxiety like a nightmare

•  The fourteen essays and three exams all in the following day was incubus.

infrastructure- The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation

•  The infrastructure of the United States is the Constitution.

inveigle- Persuade (someone) to do something by means of deception or flattery

•  I sometimes inveigle my mother into letting me go to a party on a busy weekday.

kudos- Praise and honor received for an achievement

•  I gave my kudos to my friend who discovered a way to make humans fly.

lagniappe- Something given as a bonus or extra gift

• As a lagniappe, I gave my younger brother $5 for doing my homework.

prolix- Using or containing too many words; tediously lengthy

•  People begin to lose interest if your book is prolix.

protege- a person who receives support and protection from an influential patron who furthers the protege's career

• I was a protege of my father's skills in Martial Arts.

prototype- A first or preliminary model of something, esp. a machine, from which other forms are developed or copied

• I broke the rare prototype to the newly created iPad.

sycophant- A person who acts obsequiously toward someone in order to gain advantage; a servile flatterer

• Sometimes I have to be sycophantic to get my mother to say yes.

tautology- The saying of the same thing twice in different words

•  In hip-hop, a lot of rappers use tautology without us even realizing it.

truckle- Submit or behave obsequiously

•  The student truckle to the the A in the class while others worked hard for their grade.

2011 AP Test Essay Rubric Notes

9-8

• addresses whole prompt effectively. 
• not only effectively, but also the essay answers the prompt strongly
• persuasive analysis
• strong use of literary devices
• specific use of textual examples
• significant understanding and insight

7-6

• Not fully effective insight on the prompt
• lesser use of literary devices and textual example than 9-8
• writing is less persuasive than 9-8
• has potential for 9-8 but its not quite there

5

• less strong than 7-6
• relies on plot summary
• vague textual examples and literary devices
• simplistic understanding

4-3

• adequate understanding
• examples/lit devices are irrelevant or unsupported
• very little analysis, more reliance on plot summaries
• noticeable amounts of grammar and spelling errors

2-1

• attempt to respond to the prompt
• distracting grammar or spelling errors
• vague/brief representation of information 

0

• does not relate to prompt

Pg. 64-82 Notes

Gilgamesh

• A king that built a place for the Gods Anu and Ishtar
•  Uruk= ancient sumerian city
• 1/3 man, 2/3 god

Iliad

• Achilleus and Hektor battle out
• Ach wants revenge for his countrymen that Hektor killed.
• Athene thinks it is fate for Hektor to die so she abandons Hektor and aids Achilleus.
• Hektor killed Achilleus' partner, Patroklos
• Hektor gets stabbed in the neck with a spear and is forced to sit, bleeding as vengence

A History of the English Church and People

• Belgic Gaul is south of English island
• prosperous and promising English land
• Latin medium for scriptures
• Britons-original inhabitants
• then Scythians came to north Isish coast (W of Britain) and found Scots
• Pictish settlers rejected from settling in Ireland
• sent to go to Britain, promised help to fight if they resisted
• settles in north, Britons in south
• king comes from lady's side as part of agreement to marry into Pictish families, if needed
• Ireland more pleasant with no reptiles or snakes, immune to poison
• Scots originally from Ireland, migrated to Britain

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

•  East Anglia and Northumbria harrassed Wessex
• Wessex built large ships to fight off
• Danes and King Alfred fought? at the Isle of Wales?
• Danes lost but saved by tide.

Vocabulary #5

acumen - noun a tapering point; shrewdness shown by keen insight

• My acumen was needed for the discussion to continue.

adjudicate - verb bring to an end; settle conclusively; put on trial or hear a case and sit as the judge at the trial of

• All I see on Facebook are statuses about how teenage girls want to adjudicate heart brake from their lives.

anachronism - noun an artifact that belongs to another time; a person who seems to be displaced in time; who belongs to another age; something located at a time when it could not have existed or occurred

• In a century my iPod will the an anachronism of the 21st century.

apocryphal - adj. being of questionable authenticity; of or belonging to the Apocrypha

• The gold watch that my mother found on the ground was apocryphal.

disparity - noun inequality or difference in some respect

• Younger siblings are always treated with disparity.

dissimulate - verb hide (feelings) from other people

• Teenage girls tend to say that they are dissimulating from society.

empirical - adj. derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; relying on medical quackery

• The empirical data from the chemistry lab was disappointing.

flamboyant - adj. richly and brilliantly colorful; elaborately or excessively ornamented; noun showy tropical tree or shrub native to Madagascar; widely planted in tropical regions for its immense racemes of scarlet and orange flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana

• Flamboyant backgrounds are usually very appealing to art critics.

fulsome - adj. unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech

• The fulsome man looked very shady and untrustworthy.

immolate - verb offer as a sacrifice by killing or by giving up to destruction

• In polytheistic societies, immolation was popular for their religion.

imperceptible - adj. impossible or difficult to perceive by the mind or senses

• The wild painting was very imperceptible.

lackey - noun a male servant (especially a footman); a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage

• High school is known for their amount of lackeys. 

liaison - noun a channel for communication between groups; a usually secretive or illicit sexual relationship

• I serve as a liaison for many organizations in the world.

monolithic - adj. characterized by massiveness and rigidity and total uniformity; imposing in size or bulk or solidity.

•  The monolithic marching band impressed the whole audience.

mot juste - noun the approprite word or expression

• Sometimes the mot juste of everyday speech never comes to mind.

nihilism - noun a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake; complete denial of all established authority and institutions; the delusion that things (or everything, including the self) do not exist; a sense that everything is unreal

• The failure of a society called for the complete nihilism of the nation.

patrician - adj. of the hereditary aristocracy or ruling class of ancient Rome or medieval Europe; of honorary nobility in the Byzantine empire; belonging to or characteristic of the nobility or aristocracy; noun a person of refined upbringing and manners; a member of the aristocracy

•  Patricians were treated with so much honor in the past, but it seems like that has died down since the rise of democracy.

propitiate - verb make peace with

• After an argument with a friend, we always propitiate to ensure that we don't lose each other.

sic - adv. intentionally so written (used after a printed word or phrase); verb urge a dog to attack someone

• Getting sicced by a dog is a trite idea used by many children.

sublimate - adj. made pure; noun the product of vaporization of a solid; verb direct energy or urges into useful activities; vaporize and then condense right back again; change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting; remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation; make more subtle or refined

• I have completely forgotten the process of sublimination that we learned about in Chemistry last year.

From Old to New

Meanehwæl, baccat meaddehæle, monstær lurccen;
Fulle few too many drincce, hie luccen for fyht.
Ðen Hreorfneorhtðhwr, son of Hrwærowþheororthwl,
Æsccen æwful jeork to steop outsyd. Þhud! Bashe! Crasch! Beoom! Ðe bigge gye
Eallum his bon brak, byt his nose offe;
Wicced Godsylla wæld on his asse.
Monstær moppe fleor wyþ eallum men in hælle.
Beowulf in bacceroome fonecall bamaccen wæs;
Hearen sond of ruccus sæd, "Hwæt ðe helle?"
Graben sheold strang ond swich-blæd scharp
Stond feorth to fyht ðe grimlic foe. "Me," Godsylla sæd, "mac ðe minsemete."
Heoro cwyc geten heold wiþ fæmed half-nelson
Ond flyng him lic frisbe bac to fen
Beowulf belly up to meaddehæle bar,
Sæd, "Ne foe beaten mie færsom cung-fu."
Eorderen cocca-cohla yce-coeld, ðe reol þyng.

Meanwhile, back at Middle Hell, the monster lurks
Feeling too many drinks, he's lookin for fight
Then Jim, son of John,
Asked the awful jerk to step outside. Thud! Bash! Crash! Boom! The big guy
All of his bones broke, bit his nose off;
Wicked Godzilla wailed on his ass.
Monster mopped the floor with all of the men in hell.
Beowulf in the back room on a phonecall with batman was;
Hearing the sound of a ruccus said, "What the hell?"
Grabbed shield strong and switch-blade sharp
Stand forth to fight the gramlin monster. "I," Godzilla said, "make thee mincemeat."
He quickly got held in the famous half-nelson
And flung him like a frisbee back to hell
Beowulf drunk at Middle Hell Bar
Said, "The foe beat my fearsome kung-fu."
He ordered Coca-Cola Ice-Cold, the real thing.

Deconstructing Spiderman

Departure
Peter Parker, wanders into a secret lab of radioactive spiders. He gets bitten by one of them, and he turns into a freak to society with spider powers. He is called to adventure because whether he likes it or not, the person that turned supernatural is him and not someone else.

Initiation
The now, Spiderman, finds out that all the terror in the city can only be fought effectively by himself because he is the only innocent one with superpowers. When a crazy doctor turns himself into a lizard and starts to plot against the city, Spiderman has an obligation to fight crime and save the city from Lizard.

Return
In Spiderman's case, he refuses to return to his real life because now he is a hero, and he must continue to help the city from any crime and danger. He realizes the reason for his powers, and he senses more danger coming so he continues to live his alter ego.

Vocabulary #4

Apostate - adj. not faithful to religion or party or cause; noun a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.

• My apostate friend left me waiting in the supermarket for a girl he thought was cute.

Effusive - adj. extravagantly demonstrative; uttered with unrestrained enthusiasm

• The effusive drama club students were not shy in their efforts to act in public.

Impasse - noun a street with only one way in or out; a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible

• The government was once at an impasse because the economy was not getting any better.

Euphoria - noun a feeling of great (usually exaggerated) elation

• The euphoric melody of the song sent everyone's mind in a trance.

Lugubrious - adj. excessively mournful

• The lugubrious tree cried everyday of his life and never once felt the feeling on happiness.

Bravado - noun a swaggering show of courage

• The lion's bravado helped to win his pride's pride back from the hyenas.

Consensus - noun agreement in the judgment or opinion reached by a group as a whole

• A consensus was reached after long hours locked up in their bedrooms.

Dichotomy - noun being twofold; a classification into two opposed parts or subclasses

• The dichotomy of our government is Republicans and Democrats.

Constrict - verb become tight or as if tight; squeeze or press together

• Onix takes his rock-solid body structure to constrict his enemies until they give up.

Gothic - adj. characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque

• Poe's later poems where characterized with gothic traits.

Punctilio - noun strict observance of formalities; a fine point of etiquette or petty formality

• On Fridays, even the smallest punctilio formal attire makes a difference.

Metamorphosis - noun a complete change of physical form or substance especially as by magic or witchcraft; the marked and rapid transformation of a larva into an adult that occurs in some animals; a striking change in appearance or character or circumstances

• The metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly was a wonderful change to watch.

Raconteur - noun a person skilled in telling anecdotes

• The raconteur would make a great impromptu storyteller.

Sine qua non - an indispensable condition

• Your ugly facial feature are sine qua non.

Quixotic - adj. not sensible about practical matters; unrealistic

• Mournful trees are quixotic because trees don't have feelings.

Vendetta - noun a feud in which members of the opposing parties murder each other

• The vendetta issued to the head counselor was so slow and detailed that it was difficult to imagine.

Non Sequitur - an inference or a conclusion that does not follow from the premises.

•  To even think that I murdered a man was non sequitur.

Mystique - noun an aura of heightened value or interest or meaning surrounding a person or thing

•  The mystique of the man in the long, dark trenchcoat attracted much attention.

Quagmire - noun a soft wet area of low-lying land that sinks underfoot 

• The heavy rain in Washington turns all the dirt patches into quagmires.

Parlous - adj. fraught with danger

• The parlous saw was in the hands of a small, psycho boy.

As I Lay Dying

I've always wanted to read some Faulkner, but whenever my mind got around to opening that book, my mind got preoccupied with school or something else, or English class got the best of me and made me read a school book. I think it was around the time when we were reading Huck Finn in Nylander's class and I had to close the book in order to focus on Huck Finn. It has always been a book that I wanted to read because Faulkner was a well known author.

I always took interest in his writing as well. The way he takes a bunch of people's perspectives and puts them together in order to establish the plot. Faulkner was also reputed as one of the hardest authors to read in the 1920s, so I simply said, "Challenge Accepted" and bought Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.

Vocabulary List #3

Accolade- any award, honor, or laudatory notice

• The prestigious university was awarded accolades for their excellent science department.

Acerbity- sourness or acidness of taste, character, or tone.

•  The old man's acerbity flared when he found his house covered in toilet paper.

Attrition- a reduction or decrease in numbers, size, or strength.

• After the 2010 graduating class, the attrition of the school band was horrifying. 

Bromide- A person who is platitudinous and boring

• The bromide chemistry teacher never went beyond teaching his students basic chemistry and allowing them only fundamental experiments.

Chauvinist- A person who is prejudice in the superiority of one's own gender, group, or kind.

• The time of the Civil Rights Movement was a chauvinistic time for white Americans.

Chronic- habitual

• Many people say that marijuana is a gateway drug to the more chronic drugs like meth and heroine.

Expound- to set forth or state in detail

• The speech was expounded in such detail that it left the audience both astounded and weary.

Factionalism- of a faction or factions

• The US government has adapted factionalism into the country.

Immaculate- free from fault or flaw

•  In paradise, it is said that one can regulate self-hate and immaculate wealth.

Imprecation-  the act of cursing

• The witches imprecation of the voodoo doll paranoid the victim beyond survival.

Ineluctable- incapable of being evaded.

• The ineluctable fate of speaking in front of an audience haunts many people.

Mercurial- animated; lively

• The mercurial dog tackled everyone the moment he saw strangers.

Palliate- to relieve or lessen without curing

• The ice pack palliated the injury the football player was victim to.

Protocol- the customs and regulations dealing with diplomaticformality, precedence, and etiquette

• The military protocol called for proper respect to the king's son as he was drafted into the military.

Resplendent- shining brilliantly; splendid

• The resplendent meteor shower this year was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Stigmatize- to set some mark of disgrace or infamy

•  Darwin was stigmatized by the Christian community because of his ideas.

Sub rosa- secretly; privately

• The practice was held sub rosa because the coach did not want outsiders to know the plans.

Vainglory- excessive elation or pride

• Many civilians viewed the prince of having too much vainglory.

Vestige- a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence

•  The vestige of the dinosaurs are only contained in the collected bones.

Volition- the act of resolving, choosing, or resolving

• The volition of President Bush to engage Iraq in war is widely hated by the people of the United States.

Beowulf Questions

Kathryn and I are a group. We worked individually. I did the first half of the questions and she did the second half.

[Prologue: The Rise of the Danish Nation]
1. Shield was an orphan when he was found, so it is unusual that he became a king with his background. Shield was a respected king so they put him on a boat with treasures and sailed him out to sea. Hrothgar is Shield's heir after his son Grain.

[Heorot is Attacked]
1. Hrothgar undertook the task of making the Danes into a prosperous land. A demon from Cain attacked and killed 30 men. The demon was Grendel. The attacks lasted for 12 years, and the Danes kept offering sacrifices and gifts.

[The Hero Comes to Heorot]
1. Beowulf travels to Danes along with 14 others to aid Danes in defeating the demon.
2. Beowulf meets the first guard of the Danish coast. The guard questions the warriors, but allows them to pass after Beowulf mentions that he is the son of Ecgtheow and he is loyal to Hygelac.
3. Hrothgar's herald is a news messenger named Wulfgar. Wulfgar asks Beowulf what business he has with Hrothgar. Beowulf tells him that he is here to help the Danes, and Wulfgar takes the news immediately to Hrothgar. Hrothgar mentions that he remembers Beowulf. I'm not surprised because Hrothgar and Ecgtheow knows each other.
4. Beowulf offers to fight Grendel with his bare hands. Beowulf's father killed Heatholaf a member of the Wulfing tribe, and Hrothgar sent treasure to the Wulfings to cease the fighting.

[Feast at Heorot]
1.  Unferth accuses Beowulf of his vanity and losing a swimming match, and Beowulf retaliates by calling Unferth a drunk and pointing out how he is a failure at fighting Grendel. The scene compares to the poem because it shows differences in boastfulness.
2. Queen Wealtheow says that she wants Beowulf to befriend and guide her children, Hrethric and Hrothmund, when Hrothgar passes.

[Fight with Grendel]
1. Beowulf refuses armor and weapons. He walks into battle completely unarmed.
2. When Grendel enters Heorot, he kills some of the Geatish warriors, but Beowulf pins Grendel down as he tries to escape. Grendel eventually escapes, but he dies in a swamp. Beowulf is rewarded with Grendel's arm that he tore off.

[Celebration at Heorot]
1. Beowulf and Sigemund are similar in that they both fought giant monsters. Beowulf and Heremod are different because Beowulf is loyal to his people and Heremod is not.
2. Hrothgar rewards Beowulf for his deed by praising him and offering him gifts. Unferth basically takes back all his insults because Beowulf did the task.
3. The Finn story is about the Danish losing to the Frisians, and the Danish used a woman to call a truce between forces and the Frisians agreed. This shows that women are undervalued because they are so easily disposable to others.
4. Wealtheow tells Hrothgar not to tell anyone.
5. Wealtheow asked Beowulf to take care of her children. With the necklace Beowulf received from Wealtheow, he gives it to Hygd.
6. The men stayed in the drinking hall because they were drunk and didn't know any better. Grendel's mother took revenge on the Danes by killing the men in the drinking hall.

[Another Attack]
1. Grendel's mother only wanted to avenge her son's death.
2. Hrothgar demanded that Beowulf kill Grendel's mother because she killed Hrothgar's friend and his counselor.
3. The mere is a scary, swampy area where Grendel's mother's lair is.

[Beowulf Fights Grendel's Mother]
1. If Beowulf is killed, he told Hrothgar to return his things to Hygelac and take care of the Geats.
2. Before Beowulf enters the mere with his soldiers, they find Aeschere's head.
3. Beowulf covers himself in armor and Unferth equips him with a sword named Hrunting.
4. When Beowulf enters the mere, he is immediately attacked by Grendel's mother. It was surprising that the monster would live at the bottom of the mere.
5. The Hrunting can't cut Grendel's mother's head.
6. When Grendel's mother is sitting on top of Beowulf, Beowulf manages to hurt the monster, and that moves her off of him.
7. Beowulf uses the sword of the giants to cut her throat, then he proceeds to decapitate her and takes her head as a reward. The sword begins to melt.
8. When Beowulf emerges as the victor, his men take off his armor and congratulate him because they did not expect to see him alive.

Further Celebration at Heorot
1. Beowulf presents Hrothgar with Grendel's head and the sword hilt which killed him.
2. He tells him how a great leader looks for eternal and not earthly rewards. Heremod was evil and disloyal which was contrasted with Beowulf's goodness. Heremod died from deserting his people for the Jutes and died from betrayal. This should have taught Beowulf that loyalty and godness will keep him alive and will keep the gods on his side, instead of taking the easy route and dying in the process.
3. He returns Hrunting.

Beowulf Returns Home
1. He predicts he will be a good and generous ruler with a great future.
2. Hygd is Hygelac's wife, the queen. She is young, wise, and righteous, unlike Modthryth who was evil and killed her innocent citizens when she thought they were offending her.
3. The intention of the marriage is to bring peace to the warring kingdoms. He predicts that once they see each other wearing plundered goods as their own that it will start up new tensions and the fighting will recommense. We are surprised that he is being pessimistic and thinking the worst of people. Generally, he is kind and thinks all is good besides definite evil.
4. He reports accurately, but emphasizes and exaggerates the struggles and strengths of the monsters. He especially tells of his rewards and merit for performing the daunting feat of might and courage.
5. He gives most of it away to Hygd and Hygelac, including horses, a necklace, and suits of armor. In return, he recieved large amounts of treasure and his own land to rule.

BEOWULF AND THE DRAGON

The Dragon Wakes
1. There is a fifty year time skip, in which Hygelac dies and the throne is left to Beowulf. There is a dragon ranpaging towards Beowulf's castle.
2. The dragon's anrgy because it had been guarding a buried treasure for 300 years and he awoke to find a slave had stolen a goblet right from under him. The treasure was there because the last of an ancient race knew the treasure would do him no good because he was destined to die along with all his ancestors.
3. The dragon burns down villages and homes and Beowulf's throne-hall.
4. He thought he had lost favor with the gods. The shield is to protect him from the fiery breath of the dragon whom he plans on defeating himself. He wants to fight it alone, in open ground, with a sword and some armour. He will be defeated because he doesn't realize he's fifty years older than when he fought Grendel and much feebler.
5. Hygelac died in combat at Friesland. After his death, Beowulf served as guardian and advisor to his son until he was able to rightfully take the throne. He was offered the position of King but didn't accept it due to throwing off the royalty succession. He only took the throne when Hygelac's son died.
6. He dies in a skirmish against the Swedes. Beowulf later ceased tensions with the Swedes.
7. He takes eleven men to survey the sorroundings and investigate, but he alone goes to fight the dragon.
8. Herebeald died in the castle from Grendel's attack, causing the king unbearable grief and sorrow and need for revenge. The Swedes and Geats finally came to a peace agreement under Beowulf.

Beowulf Attacks The Dragon
1. He tells them to go away and let go him fight alone.
2. In the first battle, Veowulf realizes his sword and armour aren't enough. All but Wiglaf flee in terror, but Wiglaf stays to fight alongside his king to give some hope of victory. He tried to coax the others into joining him by reminding them of their oaths but to no avail. He goes alone to asist Beowulf.
3. The second time, Beowulf's sword breaks and Wiglaf comes to the rescue and stabs the dragon in the stomach. Then Beowulf pulls a knife and stabs the beast in the flank, a fatal blow. But the dragon had bit Beowulf in the neck with a venomous bite and both were destined to die.
4. He wasks Wiglaf to bring him the treasure to see what he had liberated. He is satisfied with the riches he won for his people and tells Wiglaf to build him a barrow to be buried in called "Beowulf's Barrow"

Beowulf's Funeral
1. The soldiers find Wiglaf mourning the death of their ruler, and are bitterly welcomed by him. He scorns their cowardice, saying Beowulf's generosity was wasted on them and adumbrates the Geats will face many foreign warlords trying to defeat them without Beowulf.
2. The messenger tells the results of the battle and warns them against attack from the Franks, Frisians, and Swedes.
3. He tells of Beowulf's dying wish and prepares them for the construction of his barrow.
4. The dragon's corpse is thrown into a body of water.
5. The people burn his body and mourn his death.
6. They claimed he was mild, kind and pariseworthy. We would expect him to be describes as mighty, or victorious, or valiant, not as a meek ruler who brought prosperous times on his kingdom.

1987 Ap Test Essays: Peer Feedback #1 : Poisonwood Bible

Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible shows the social change that is forced upon foreign people. In the novel. The Congolese people are forced into believing a religion that they have never heard about. Christianity has a certain attitude of trying to enforce the religion on to people. A major part of the religion is to go out and preach in order to spread and multiply the amount of people that believe in God. The author, however, wishes to change that idea that religion forces people into belief by showing a situation where the converting failed and the converters are kicked out of the country for their disrespect and shame.

The whole book is based around the character Nathan. He moves to the Congo in order to convert the Congolese hoping to give them "hope". But he fails miserably. Then he proceeds to try and civilize the Congolese which again fails. Nathan can't realize the fact that these people are beyond able to be civilized. His character is symbolic of nations that try to civilize third-world countries that cannot be civil. Nathan portrays the aggressive nature of religion and strong countries to enforce their beliefs on others.

The author uses the whole Price family to symbolize the impossibility of what Nathan is trying to achieve. Orleanna shows the persistence of the people that try to enforce their beliefs, Leah and Adah represent the inevitable failure of trying to make a copy of a nation, Rachel represents the corrupt, sycophantic attitude of the enforcers., and Ruth May represents the little hope that ends up dying because of failure. Throughout the whole novel, it shows how each character fails in the Congo when they try to intervene in foreign affairs.

The Poisonwood Bible personifies the essence of failure into a family of different people in order to show the outcome of trying to civilize a nation. Kingsolver modifies what religion and a lot of strong forces of nature try to do to vulnerable, weak victums; however, she doesn't show the success of the attempt, rather the failure of it. By using symbolism through the main protagonists, Kingsolver influences the audience's view of mainstream religion and power.

1987 Ap Test Essays: Peer Feedback #1 : George Eliot

"Leisure is gone." George Eliot's depiction of old leisure suggests a craving nostalgia for the leisure she remembers. At the same time, Eliot thinks of old leisure as some force that powers life itself, and she implies that without the feeling of it around, society slowly begins to wither away. Her leisure has changed into a type of leisure where simplicity and relaxation has died off. Eliot personifies leisure as a simple person that is ignorant of life.

Eliot has a strong passion towards older leisure because her idea leisure is the apotheosis of simplicity, but with the change of time from dominantly manual work to the productive industrial age, leisure has been taken over by the idea of production to better the lives of people. The way Eliot views leisure is different in that she longs for the continuation of spinning wheels, slow waggons, pedlars, and the pack-horses, but the change has rendered her hopeless of the leisure of society's current times. She tells the audience not to believe what people say about leisure because it is a vacuum for eagerness. By stating, "even idleness is eager now-eager for amusement," Eliot alienates the leisure of current time, and implicitly shows how her type of old leisure is essentially better.

The personification of leisure as a man who reads only one newspaper, is innocent of leaders, and is free from that periodicity of sensations which we call post-time, supports Eliot's notion of old leisure. By portraying an innocent, not yet corrupt society, Eliot implies that the change of leisure has done nothing but harm society itself. The man portrayed is ignorant of everything around him, and that is good because the knowledge of such topics would only cause him harm. The man is "happy in his inability to know the causes of things, preferring the things themselves."

Eliot shows a desire for the old leisure back and a passionate animosity for the what leisure has turned into in her time. She talks about the purity of preindustrial society and the devil that lives inside the change of leisure after productiveness and eagerness dominated people's minds. By personifying old leisure as a man that is innocent at heart, Eliot promotes the leisure she longs for.

Reflections on Week 1

Following the guidelines listed, I shouldn't have any problems. By that I mean that I have access to a phone, the computer, and transportation all at my disposal. The only way any of those wouldn't be available is if my phone lines died, my computer broke, my internet service ceased, or my car broke beyond repair. As far as family goes, I don't ask them for anything school related unless it's my mom signing paperwork. All the help and hassle business is directed towards my friends because I find that most of my friends are at my mentality level, so its safe to ask or argue on a topic.

A really ideal learning experience comes from live interaction with what I'm learning. The closest to that I can think of is learning Music. It was actually very recent, maybe a couple weeks ago when I was learning all my music for Drumline. Since I am on a new drum this year I need to learn all the music all over again. I was at Drumline practice in the band room along with our coach Robert, a fellow Righetti and Drumline Alumni. The way I learn in an interactive atmosphere is very different from a traditional sit down in class and listen to a lecture (one of the reasons I'm not excited for college). When I learn music, I always have a passion for it regardless of what instrument or genre of music it is. The initial physical interactions draw me in. I just can't sit still. I have to move or else my mind shuts off.

As previously noted, I'm excited for the amount of technology that is involved in the class. I think is great because how many high school teachers make you blog or let you pull out your iPad during class to take notes. When I first made my blog and wrote that first assignment, I said I wasn't ready to be concerned or nervous about anything, but now that a week has gone by, I'm starting to fear for my life. The work load was a lot more than I expected and it's hitting me hard. For one thing, this course is going to make me study and force myself out of my lazy schooling ways.